Evental Subjectivity and Ethical Bonds in Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun

This paper critically examines the binary and transcendent ontological assumptions underpinning current debates in AI ethics. Using a new materialist framework, in dialogue with object-oriented ontology, this paper explores new values, ethical bonds, and forms of subjectivity that transcend binary dichotomies. From this perspective, human and nonhuman entities are material beings in mutual relation, thus guiding inquiry toward a relational ethical paradigm for AI. This new materialist lens yields a distinct reading of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun: rather than a transcendent Sun and a merely dystopian disposal posited in prior accounts, Klara persists as a vital nonhuman agent emergent from material entanglements. This paper foregrounds the potentiality of excluded beings, showing how marginalized entities can re-emerge as events within entangled relational networks and thereby impose new ethical obligations and responsibilities. Klara’s caregiving illustrates how relations of care arising from requests and responses position her as a technological mediator. Values and ethics indispensable to an ecological society inclusive of nonhuman entities are not pre-given but continually produced through material entanglements and ongoing becoming. Accordingly, this paper argues that establishing AI ethics is a process of active choosing and acting that shapes our shared futures. By moving beyond binary thinking, a relational conception of ethics offers new insight for sustainable development in the age of AI.